Double Vision
by Blandge
Summary: In a botched attempt to travel back in time to save their worlds from the dystopian nightmares they've become, Harry and Haley Potter are thrust into a new dimension where the magicals rule Great Britain with supreme authority. Surrounded by powerful forces on all sides, they have to work together to stay alive long enough to uncover this timeline's dark history. Harry & Fem!Harry


A/N: First off, this is not a sequel to my other Harry & Fem!Harry fic, Self Reflection. The main characters have the same name and similar backstories, but the timelines are not crossed over in any away. I am not abandoning that one, but my muse struck on this idea, so I'll probably focus on this for a little while.

This fic is an exploration into what would happen if Harry and Fem!Harry met in a massively AU dimension as adults. The story begins in medias res, so the situations and technical jargon are meant to be confusing as first. Please give it a few chapters and the pieces will start falling into place.

The POV will switch back and forth between the protagonists from time to time, so just be aware of that. I'll always put a section break between them.

Rated Mature for violence, sexual situations, and language.

* * *

Double Vision

Extended Summary: In a botched attempt to travel back in time to save their worlds from the dystopian nightmares they've become, Harry and Haley Potter are thrust into a new dimension where the magicals rule Great Britain with supreme authority. Surrounded by powerful forces on all sides, they have to work together to stay alive long enough to uncover this timeline's dark history, and then decide if these people are worth saving. Dimension Travel, Massively AU, Post Hogwarts, Harry & Fem!Harry.

_Chapter 1: A Botched Landing_

* * *

The place looked way different since the last time I'd been here almost a decade ago while I was still in school. Strange... but ultimately irrelevant, the only path was forward.

I extended my awareness, letting the kaleidoscope of foreign Intention crawl around my mind like a hive of disturbed bees. _Alertness_… _protection_… _exclusion_… _aggression_…

"Jesus…" I muttered. The complexity of the Curser's Weave nearly melted my mind as I withdrew from the vortex of emotions swirling through the Aether.

Glancing over, I gawked at the serene expression on Haley's face. The previously pinched lines and severe edges relaxed into delicate curves.

It was a good look on her.

"We could smash through," I said eventually.

"Are you mad?" she asked, never wavering from her concentration.

I shrugged. "It's always worked for me before: isolate the neutral Intention, trigger the _aggression_, and batten down the hatches while the door caves in."

She swiveled her head and glared daggers into me. "You forgot the part where we collapse half the building and wake everyone within a quarter mile, you _plonker_."

Shrugging again, I said, "We've no other choice. Not unless you can do Divergent Arithmancy in your head. Even Hermione couldn't do that."

Focusing again, she shut her eyes. "Do I look like Granger to you? Why dismantle the Weave the hard way when you can cheat?" she asked, then pulled out _two_ wands and started swirling them in complex, asynchronous motions. "Symbolic Arithmancy is how you break curses quickly."

I snorted. "Christ, you've bought into Dumbledore's Aurism rubbish, haven't you?"

"Fuck you."

A wry smile snuck onto my face as her wands began to dance. Sixth year flashbacks flew past as I watched her move with the subtle grace that only a Dumbledore, or apparently a Potter, could muster.

With a quiet _twang,_ the abrasive grip of the Curser's Weave dissipated in clouds of runny-nose emotions.

Haley turned to me with a smirk. "Bet your Granger never did that."

"She also never grinned at me psychotically with blood gushing down her face."

With a jerk, she turned away, swiping self-consciously at the crimson streams flowing down her lips. "Fuck you," she repeated, her voice muffled.

I felt a little bad for pointing that out. It really was a brilliant piece of magic, and even more props to the girl for completely ignoring the feedback headache such a counter spell would invariably entail.

"Come here," I said, palming her shoulder as I turned her towards me to _Episkey_ her nosebleed.

She spun around, hair fanning out like a fiery curtain until her wand pointed between my eyes. "Don't fucking touch me!"

I stumbled back, hands raised. "Woah, cool it. I was just going to heal you."

She sniffed, a dripping glob of coagulating blood shooting back into her nostril. "Back off," she said, and then stalked forward, throwing the door open and stomping inside.

* * *

Neatly placed portraits lined the bare rock walls of the otherwise austere hallway I strode through. Haley stood a few feet away in front of a tangled curtain of vicious looking vegetation.

"Devil's Snare," I said, already pointing my wand out, an _Incendio_ at the tip of my tongue.

"Wait!" she hissed. "This is a trap."

"Of course it is. We're in a heavily guarded facility."

Rubbing at her temples, she let out a tired sigh—yeah, feedback headaches were a bitch—and said, "No I mean, don't you think there would be fire suppression runes all over the place if they were burning this thing back every morning?"

I scoffed at her paranoia, recalling memories of tearing apart hotel rooms looking for surveillance devices. What was that all the old Aurors used to say, '_Conspicuously inconspicuous'_?

Glancing around, the entire walkway was little more than a boring tunnel cut through solid rock, with shoddy looking portraits of grubby looking old men that… looked away when you stared at them too long. "Did you freeze these portraits?" I asked.

"Duh."

"That one," I said, pointing at the picture containing a middle aged man in a frilly, old-fashioned robe that had just opened his mouth to yell out.

"_Silencio!_"

The frantic looking bald man in the portrait mouthed words of alarm while gesticulating to his fellow portraits. None of the others moved.

The portrait's frame warped a bit as I hauled it off the wall with a grunt. There were two runic Runespoors carved on the back next to a triplet of Unknown runes. "What the heck? Sevens full of Threes..." I said. "This is an igniting construct."

I felt Haley walk up beside me to take a peek. Looking up, I saw her expression had sharpened.

She tapped her lips for a moment, and then turned back to the gnarled web of vines. "Hardwick's Snare," she said eventually. Upon seeing the blank look on my face, she continued with a haughty, "It's a heat resistant breed that attacks when the vines encounter flames."

"Oh."

Haley rolled her eyes and then swept her wand in a broad arc, punctuated by an abrupt stab. The portrait zoomed to a vent in the ceiling where the base of the snare spilled out. Upon slotting the picture into a space beside the vent, there was a brief flash accompanied by the aroma of burning wood, and the plant began to recede.

Was there a special place on the plant you had to burn like the small knot at the base of the Whomping Willow? I imagined Hardwick coaxing a Devil's Snare into mating with a Whomping Willow and made a mental note to have Hagrid to send them a letter.

A minute later, we stood at the beginning of a long empty hallway stretching into the distance.

Damn, nil-to-two. I was starting to feel a bit useless.

Haley waved me forward with a raised eyebrow. "After you, princess."

* * *

We walked in silence down the hallway for a while until Haley started muttering quietly under her breath.

"Doesn't make any sense… wasn't like this last time..."

Out of the corner of my eye I could see her gesticulating to herself; I was struck by the contrast between the laser focus of her wit and her animated thought process. It was a bizarre juxtaposition.

She had a point though. What was going on?

"Stop," I said, suddenly, and jutted a hand out in front of her. "There's some serious magic up ahead."

Shoving my hand away, she said, "No shit," but came to a halt just a few yards from the door. "Another _fucking_ locked door."

I made a fist and extended that arm forward. The hands on my wrist watch zoomed around in frantic circles until eventually settling on 12:45, while the watch's face turned nearly pure white. "It's just a normal locked door. The magic is coming from the other side."

Haley eyed me. "Fine, let's check it out."

"We can't just open the door," I said, exasperated.

"You're not the only one with toys." She gave an exaggerated wink before undoing the button on her robes—more of a long coat, really—and rummaging around inside.

She pulled out a tarnished silver compact and held it open toward me. The upper lid held a standard mirror, but resting in a little expanded space in the bottom half was—

"Is that—"

"Moody's eye!" she said with a huge grin.

"Bloody h—your Moody died?" I exclaimed.

Haley's face became dead serious. "Yours didn't?"

An intense moment passed before I said, "We don't have time for this."

She snorted, then turned away and fiddled with a little brass knob on the side of the compact. The eye swiveled to face the door, and so did the perspective of the mirror. It was like like adjusting the direction of a surveillance camera.

The door became transparent and an image of the room beyond appeared. _Mental._

This was it! The room we were looking for. Inside were rows and rows of massive shelves that reached up towards the vaulted ceiling. Glittering pinpricks of light lined each shelf like pearls reflecting starlight.

In the middle of the room rose a towering dais flanked by two steel columns. In front of each column stood an intimidating-looking guard robed in black, each face hidden within shadowed cowls.

To better envision the magic, I closed my eyes and slowly let the foreign Intention leak into me. It was a bloody maelstrom of emotion assaulting my mind, causing my whole body to flinch against the sudden mental torment.

"It's heavy in there," I said, breathing hard.

"Let me do it," is all she said.

I nodded.

"Ready?" she asked

"Ready."

She closed her eyes and her face settled into that same startling, serene expression from earlier. The only discomfort she showed was a crinkling around the eyes.

_Damn,_ no way could I withstand that brutality. The sheen of sweat that appeared on her brow focused my attention. It was now or never.

"Constructs?" I asked.

"And enchantments."

"Area or barrier?"

"Both."

"Trigger or sustained?"

"Both, but all the nasty stuff is triggered by those two goth wankers," she said. "I can make a hole for you, but you'll only have about five seconds. Maybe if—"

"Five seconds is enough."

She cracked an eye open, cocking a brow at the same time.

"Do it," I said.

"_Twat_," she muttered, resuming her focus. "Three…

Flicking my off hand, I summoned my second wand flew into my palm and sank into a battle stance. I cleared my mind, letting my awareness heighten and my focus sharpen.

"Two… "

My physical body fizzled into an indistinct blur, and a few dozen Symbols passed through my mind like speed reading sheet music.

"One!"

The moment I felt the protections fail, I disapparated. The only sound came from the whirling of my robes as I appeared beside the first guard and slashed my wands down across their body.

The first spell wrapped a smothering blanket of magic around them, blending with the charms on the black robes and bursting with a sound like uncorking a champagne bottle. The second spell cleaved their body into two.

I directed Aether to empower my legs and kicked off the steel column with an earsplitting _clang._ The Killing Curse from "goth wanker two" connected with surprising accuracy as I hurtled towards them at inhuman speed.

As soon as the Unforgivable touched my body, I felt its _hateful_ Intention cutting in and out of my awareness and stabbing lances of agony to a spot behind my eyes. A ring of emerald light passed around my blurred form like a rogue wave around a lighthouse and exited through my feet.

My dual wands contacted the guard's chest, and I let wild Symbols surge from my awareness in a torrent of Earth and Fire. Their body exploded in a chunky shower of organic debris.

* * *

"… four… five."

My form reconstituted with a fizzle, and I watched dispassionately as Haley's whole body sagged in relief. There was a fresh river of blood running down her neck and dripping off her chin.

It took a monumental effort to stop myself from lurching forward to steady her.

"It's done," I said.

Our eyes met, and I didn't have to know her well to understand that I was being reappraised.

She said nothing, but turned to walk through the open door.

I followed.

* * *

We stood atop the stone dais, under a golden archway held up by two steel columns. Before us rose an obsidian stand where a pearl white orb rested upon a silk pillow covered in intricate embroidering. It was cold; just like last time.

"This is it."

Haley gave me a look, and then reached forward with slender fingers to grasp _The Prophecy_.

Nothing happened.

Irritated, she shook it a couple times, then jabbed her wand causing an angry red spark to jump into it. Finally, the rasping voice on an old man emerged from the orb.

"_And so will they duel, the two of them, brothers—closer than brothers—for the fate of Britain. Down one path our kind sinks into further obscurity. Down the other… A Great Society. A Great Britain. Where magicals decide their own destiny and the magicless become chattel. The Long Peace, or Long Reign. Fate will decide."_

I blinked. I blinked again. Turning to Haley, I saw a dumbfounded expression on her face that mirrored what I was feeling.

"What the fuck was that?" she asked.

"I don't know. Clearly not about us," I said, scratching my head and feeling a heat around my neck.

"Merlin, we're a couple of _conceited_ bellends aren't we?" she said, whipping the orb into the steel column behind me where it exploded in a shower of glass.

I watched the sparkling dust fall out of the air like fine snowflakes. Neither of us questioned which prophecy was held beneath the golden archway. It seemed so obvious.

_Damn_, she was right.

Beside us, spiraling around the columns were a couple rows of shelves bored into the steel, which held a dozen or so other prophecy orbs displayed artistically. I grabbed the topmost one, and it began speaking immediately.

A male voice spoke in a cultured English accent, speaking loudly but not quite shouting, as if giving a speech.

"I, King Gellert of Great Britain, take this throne in the tradition of William the Conqueror, on May 19, 1943…"

I froze as the prophecy continued, loud and clear, proclaiming Gellert—as in Gellert Grindelwald, I assumed—the King of Great Britain.

Tiny hairs all over my body stood on end as Haley sidled up next to me, nearly touching. As the strength and conviction of the speech built, I couldn't decide if it was the power of the oration or the absurd amount of spellwork dripping off Haley's robes that sent shivers up and down my body in waves.

"Grindelwald," I breathed. "Where the hell are we? When are we?" I said, trying to remain as calm as possible, but I'm sure she noticed the tremor in my voice by the look she gave me.

We started grabbing the orbs randomly, listening to their contents and then tossing them away.

"These aren't even prophecies. This is literally just Grindelwald talking and accidentally saying something profound sounding," said Haley. "It's like they think every word that comes out of this man's mouth is absolute truth."

She grabbed the last one on the dais and smashed it on the ground after the same droning voice laid out another one of their laws in idle conversation.

"And I thought _we_ were conceited," she muttered.

* * *

After a while I made my way down to the shelves on the floor of the great room. The pedantic trivialities contained in these orbs weren't even profound sounding.

I took a moment to step back into the middle of the row and take in the vast size of the hall. There must be decades worth of recordings in this room. Who made all these?

"Fucking hell!" Haley yelled from behind me.

My stomach heaved a little when I turned around to see her standing in a circle of gore, using the corner of the shelf to scrape reddish-black slime off the bottom of her boots.

She looked up to glare at me. "Did you really have to slaughter these poor sods like this? They were probably somebody's parents you know."

I winced. "You gave me five seconds, I didn't have time to—"

"Bullshit! That's a pathetic excuse and you know it. Now some kid's mummy or daddy isn't coming home because you couldn't be arsed to train—"

"Screw you!" I took aim at a narrow gap through the endless shelves and hurled the sphere in my hand. I dare she judge me like that? I didn't ask Voldemort to turn me into… whatever I am.

Haley continued ranting behind me as I followed the high arc of the orb as it landed next to a curious looking object resting against the far wall. What was that?

"...isn't a dystopian nightmare like the places we came from…"

"Hey!" I shouted, looking over my shoulder.

An instant later, her wands were out and her head was swiveling. Apparently, lecture-time ends when things get serious. Good to know. I motioned for her to follow as I weaved through the shelves.

* * *

"We need to move."

"I know."

"Why are we looking at this thing? We don't have time to sightsee."

"I know."

"So let's _fucking go!_" Haley said, turning to me. "What are we still doing here? We just killed two people, brutally and unnecessarily, I might add. And now we're staring at a—I don't know what the hell this thing is—waiting for… What? What are we still doing here? Let's go!"

"Okay, okay. Just give it a minute!"

"Are you kidding? Is it 'okay let's go' or 'give it a minute?' Make up your mind, because from where I'm standing you're going to get me killed."

Before us sat some sort of archaic stone altar built into the granite wall of the chamber and worn down by time. It looked almost like a fountain with a large bowl at the bottom full of sparkling clear water and a series of circular vents at the top that seemed just about the right size to fit…

Just then, a smooth, solitary tone filled space around us, ringing pleasantly in my ears. It came from one of the vents in front of us and resembled a middling tone from a massive pipe organ. It ended abruptly as a prophecy orb popped out of one of the vents and dropped into the water with a _plop._

"This is the source," I said.

I reached my hand out to retrieve the newborn prophecy, but thought better of it. I curled my fingers into a fist and read the time on my watch when the hands eventually settled. Dead midnight with a true blue face.

"This is Water with a capital 'W.' Give me a second." I flicked my wand in a controlled pattern to sketch an icosahedron in midair and bind _acceptance_ Intention into it. The water began to pour upwards into the enchantment like draining a tube upside down.

Suddenly, the silence was rent by a scream of bloody-murder coming from the direction of the dais, and a deep, unsettling rumble shook the rock all around us.

"Fuck!" shouted Haley. "Times up, give me this!" Her wands blurred and the icosahedron floating between us warped before it stretched up and around her arm, looking like a cheesy designer tattoo.

The shelves around us folded into themselves, locking the glistening spheres inside sheets of smooth hardwood. An earthshaking boom rattled my head as the entire wall at the entrance collapsed in an avalanche of crashing stone.

"Jesus Christ, what do we do now?" I yelled, casting my eyes around for any way to escape.

"Those tubes have to go somewhere!" Haley screamed, jabbing one of her wands at the stone altar. I could barely hear her over the din of falling rock.

Great gouts of flame jetted from the walls, followed by an enormous _crack_ that rose above the cacophony. A huge wound ripped the ceiling open above us and a Hardwicks Snare (a hundred times more massive than the one in the hallway) came spilling out of the chasm like an enraged kraken.

Something impacted my side, and my face was smothered in a damp, silky sheet smelling of cinnamon and sweat. I spun around to see Haley looming over me. She pulled me close to scream in my ear and pointed to the granite fountain. "_We have to smash through_!"

I looked straight into her eyes, my mouth stretching into a shit-eating grin that made my cheeks ache worse than a psychedelic laughing fit.

"_Are you mad_?"

* * *

"Motherfucker!" I turned away from his stupid face. Having my own words spit back at me stung my pride, but I had bigger worries. _Wanker_.

The dozens of vents belching fiery death seemed to drive the Hardwick's Snare mad, until the entire breadth of the ceiling now crawled with creepy little vines, grasping and wriggling in a way that almost triggered my gag reflex.

I needed a plan.

Closing my eyes, I allowed my aura to expand, floating off my body and tasting the foreign Intention around me. A deep, satisfying sigh spilled from me as my entire awareness was released.

'_Beautiful chaos_.'

Those were the words Albus first used to describe the flurry of feelings that flitted around the edges of one's consciousness in a silent symphony of emotion.

I could feel the stone around me crumble as the magically hardened bark of the Snare tore into it; however, the ironwood shelves containing the prophecy orbs were layered with so many enchantments that they resisted even the merest scratch.

Around my arm pulsed the binding Harry made, his magic wild and aching to be released.

The berserk plant was bearing down on us now, but I knew what I had to do: step one was to slow down the plant; step two was to completely neutralize it.

Exhilaration filled me, and my wands began to dance, guiding my aura in tune with the beautiful chaos all around me.

My yew wand twirled and swished as I bound my Intention into intricate constructs using Arithmantic Symbols.

_Attraction… life… protection…_ I felt a surge of magic and the ground shook. In my mind I tasted the salty ocean spray on the wind, I inhaled the breath of life in my lungs, and felt the weight a guardian settle on my back.

Again.

_Attraction… life… protection…_ The sensations washed over me again, and the granite floor under me buckled, sinking into an incline and forcing me to steady myself.

I cracked an eye open, sacrificing my focus for to assess the situation.

My two massive stone turtles had risen from the earth, lifting entire rows of enchanted Ironwood shelving on their backs like ancient behemoths. They shook and swayed and battered the Hardwick's Snare as it attempted to reach us.

Hell yes!

Behind me I heard explosion after explosion as bludger sized chunks of rock ricocheted off the ballistic shielding woven into the enchantments on my robes.

Between blasts I could hear laughter. Rowena's saggy tits, he was enjoying this!

Shaking myself, I shut my eyes again and executed the next part of my plan.

I stowed my cedar wand then pointed my right arm straight skyward with splayed fingers, letting the icosahedron container burst in a wild torrent of Harry's magic, spraying the water essence upwards and causing me to gasp for breath.

With frigid _determination_ I projected my Intention upwards, merging my aura with the magical substance and binding it with icy _fury._

Freeze!

A chorus of furious emotions sang through my awareness like wet blanket, smothering my breath and pushing against my heaving chest.

The already cold room became arctic.

A gust of subzero wind froze the blood running down from my nose and invoked the warming constructs embroidered on the inside of my clothes.

Crunches and cracks could be heard all around, expanding out from us in steady crawl. The hissing jets of flame and the scraping of the Snare diminished. Before long, even the thundering footsteps of the golem turtles ceased.

The chaotic ocean in which my awareness swam seemed to settle as if letting out a deep, calming breath.

It was over.

My eyes fluttered open and I swooned. In my peripheral vision, I saw Harry jump forward and reach for me, triggering a pathetic little reflex that I've never been able to purge.

"Careful!" he shouted.

I twisted away from him at the last moment and slipped, landing painfully on my bum with a muttered, "Shit."

That's gonna bruise, _shit_.

Harry had apparently forgotten me, because he stood in front of me, facing away with his hands hung limply at his sides and his head swiveling around the room.

I took a minute to sit with my head between my knees, massaging my temples as a brain-splitting headache assaulted me.

Deep breaths.

The room was eerily quiet, the only sounds being our heavy panting and… My eyes shot open.

The vast chamber had become an ice world. Every surface was covered in a sheet of deep blue, transparent crystals with irregular curves and edges. Tall azure structures rose at the far edge of the room where they'd encased a mass of Snare spilling down from the ceiling like a living waterfall.

The air filled with deep, shuddering groans like standing in the middle of a hollowed-out glacier.

Before us, the two behemoths stood, frozen in battle. Their rocky shells were cracked and broken, half consumed by the enchanted vines that had frosted over.

Harry turned to me, his mouth hung open a fraction and he swallowed. The bright enchanted lights and reflective surfaces highlighted his face in a striking glow.

For the first time I noticed we had the same eyes. _Damn_, I had nice eyes.

Just then the room filled with multiple cracks of Apparation coming from the center of the room near the dais followed by a chorus of alarmed shouts.

"Time to move," said Harry, and he spun around and started into the exit he'd created.

* * *

We followed the narrow tunnel he had created that tracked the row of magically bored pipes which snaked through the stone for about twenty meters. It opened into a large antechamber with a pretentious-looking wooden door with a Celtic-style depiction of the sun carved into it.

The weathered look of the old stone clashed with the new door stylized to look old in the worst type of way, like somebody building a modern hotel around Stonehenge with a sodding playground in the middle. To make matters worse, the pipes that carried the prophecy orbs actually disappeared into slots at the bottom of the door. What would happen if somebody opened the door while a prophecy was coming out? Idiots!

"Smash through?" he asked, with a cheeky grin.

"Fuck off. _Alohomora_."

The door swung open with a loud creak, and a corona of golden light poured out of the room.

"Woah," he said.

Woah was right. At the back of the narrow chamber there was a dusky glass cylinder attached to the ceiling. It was filled with fine white sand that spilled into a tapered opening, looking like the top half of an hourglass.

Bright motes of light wafted lazily around the room, giving it an eerie glow. Most of the magic here was ancient, setting off what almost felt like a ringing in my bones. It harkened back to a time before magical theory, before wandcraft; a time when it took a whole village working in tandem to create great works like this. It left the smell of old library books lingering in my nose as I touched the enchantments with my mind.

"Need to keep moving." Harry had already stalked up to the hourglass and peered up past the sand. "There's an opening. I think we can scramble up there, maybe."

I glanced behind us, swirling my wands in a practiced pattern, pulling a stone golem out of the wall of the antechamber to guard our impromptu entrance.

"Let's go."

Just then, a booming voice appeared, coming from all directions and reverberating off the walls.

"This business with the Order of the Phoenix attacks has been an unpleasant distraction." It was Grindelwald. His voice sounded congenial, but there was a dangerous edge to it. "If you can't handle, them, Tom, then maybe it's time I look for somebody who can."

As the words came, the enchanted lights in the room seemed to coalesce into a bright beam that shone to a point at the bottom of the hourglass. Sand began to pour, liquefying instantly as it came in contact with the light.

"That will be unnecessary, my Lord," said the unmistakable voice of Tom Riddle—the human one—before he'd met his downfall.

The blood left my face. "What the fuck!"

Voldemort continued. "We've arranged a covert meeting with one of the members tomorrow night."

"Where?"

"A pub called The Swine Herd in Circe's Plaza."

"Very well. Keep me informed."

The light in the room dimmed and the beam faded. The spinning ball of molten glass continued to spin before solidifying into a pearl-white orb.

With a flick of my wand it zoomed into the pocket of my robe.

"Grindelwald and Voldemort?" Harry said, his face blank of emotion.

"Yeah, we left a couple of hellholes to get dropped in this paradise." I snorted and vanished the glass with a flick of my wand.

"Hey!" shouted a voice from behind us.

I spun around in time to see my golem cave a woman's head in with a smashing hammer-fist from above. A panicked pulse of magic zoomed through me as the poor woman perished.

The alarm was sounded.

"Jesus Christ!" Harry yelled behind me.

"Come on!" I was already three steps past him and falling upwards down the shaft with a nifty little device I nicked off a Death Eater in Normandy.

When I landed on the ceiling of the chamber below—or above—or whatever—I began sprinting. Sounds of nasty battle echoed through the chute, and I looked over my should to see Harry riding a fucking racing broom upside down and shooting towards me.

"Hop on!"

I stared at the broom, my stomach churning at the thought, when three rapid cracks of Apparition rent the air.

"Shit!" I instantly cast a shield and drew both my wands, battle instincts telling me to seek cover and formulate a plan.

Before I even had a chance to assess the field, Harry had already folded his legs around the broom and did a sort of barrel roll-pirouette maneuver, his hair skimming the ceiling—ground—whatever—as his wands slashed at the three people robed in Auror red.

Their bodies rag dolled as they each flew directly away from him and slammed into the walls limply.

Fuck me if I wasn't a little impressed at his reaction speed. At least he didn't eviscerate them this time.

Zooming up to me, he reached out a hand. "Hop on… Please! I won't mess with you." There was sincerity in his voice and in his eyes as he looked up at me.

I hesitated for the barest instant to gather myself, and then flipped forward, triggering the device so I landed on the broom behind him.

"Brilliant!" he shouted, glancing over his shoulder, and then he shot off, blasting the door in front of us off its hinges without even slowing down.

* * *

My entire being focused solely on the moment as we raced through corridor after corridor, room after room. Lean left, lean right, blast a door open. Shit, we're gonna crash! Breathe again, lean forward…

I knew the Department of Mysteries was a maze, but this was labyrinthine.

It went on and on for ages, and during that time, Harry never slowed down, and never failed to whoop at a complex set of turns or laugh joyously at a close call.

I couldn't picture myself ever being this carefree, much less in the middle of a sodding life or death escape.

"Do you have any _fucking_ clue where you're going?" I asked, speaking just behind his ear.

"Up." He gestured at the flight of stairs at the end of the long hallway we were flying through.

Now that he mentioned it, I could recall we've gone up several flights since dealing with the Aurors. Well, bugger me; he had a plan all along. I kind of envied his ability to think on his feet like that.

"Why aren't they stopping us?" I asked.

"They're going to be waiting for us at the lift."

He was right. There was only one way out of the department.

Shit.

* * *

We crouched in a small lavatory near the elevators that lead to the rest of the Ministry of Magic. The place was on complete lockdown since our foray into the Hall of Prophecy, so we'd decided it was safe to dismount the broom and head off on foot.

Or rather, I forced him to let me off after the initial rush of our quick getaway.

Toggling the little brass control switch on the side of my Moody Mirror, I scanned the dim hallway. There didn't appear to be anything noteworthy, but my instincts told me better.

The defenders would be mental not to stage an ambush here.

Harry had his eyes closed and brow furrowed as he concentrated. I joined him, allowing my aura to reach out into the hallway beyond.

There was plenty of benign magic, but something was off.

"Voids."

As soon as he said it, I noticed them. Little places missing ambient Intention where they shouldn't.

"Dementors?" I whispered.

He scoffed. "Boggarts more likely."

"In the Ministry of Magic… Boggarts. I guess they just missed those on the way to work this morning."

He didn't respond. Yeah, it was a dumb suggestion.

"Screw it," he said at full volume.

"Shh."

He just shook his head and began walking to the lift.

"Get back here, you shithead."

With a growl, I tiptoed behind him with both wands raised. This wanker was gonna get me killed, I knew it.

Like the rest of the department, the lobby was illuminated in a soft white light that glared off the peculiar, reflective masonry; something felt off.

Harry clicked his tongue and motioned with his wand to several places around the room, where shadows around the corners and doorways loomed unnaturally long and dark.

Suddenly, all the darkness seemed to take a deep breath, receding but solidifying into tangible, formless blobs that were blacker than black. I tensed, leaning on the balls of my feet, and then the room exploded into commotion.

Shadowy blurs zoomed at Harry from seemingly everywhere, and he dove to his left, slamming up against the stone with a heavy thud that had him wheezing.

_Protego_. I cast the magical shield in front of him in a cascade of dazzling reflections that shone off the gaudy brickwork.

Who puts a mirror finish on brick? Fucking Unspeakables and their pseudo-mysterious bullshit.

The charm didn't last long though, because a moment later the shield fizzled out with a whine, and I could hear Harry's muffled shouting.

Still blinking spots out of my eyes, I stalked forward, letting my awareness unfurl, enveloping the emotional voids that characterized many dark magical creatures.

I strengthened my resolve and thrust into the void using a mental trick not too dissimilar to Legilimency.

Complete and all-consuming _despair_...

Dementors—no, Lethifolds!

"_Expecto Patronum!_" I shouted as images of hospital wards and frail, weeping old men filled my mind.

A radiant silvery avian burst from my wand and barreled into the writhing mass of blackness, and five distinct forms scattered, coalescing into coherent shapes.

The Lethifolds resembled Dementors, wraith-like and shrouded; however, where Dementors loomed with terrifying inevitability, Lethifolds were slight and nimble, capable of inhuman bursts of speed and agility.

None could stand against the corporeal form of my Patronus, but the five of them began spreading out along the breadth of the hallway, trying to dart past.

I dashed over to Harry, who looked a disheveled and a little bleak around the eyes, but otherwise fine. We locked wrists and I hauled him to his feet.

"_Expecto Patronum,_" he said in a tone that seemed far too blasé for the situation. A brilliant light erupted from his wand so violently that I almost expected him to be thrown back from the recoil.

The combined might of our Patronuses broke the creatures' resolves, and they retreated in earnest. We marched ahead, urging our familiars forward until all five Lethifolds were huddled in the corner of the lift.

A thought lit up my mind, and I couldn't suppress the laugh that escaped me. Apparating into the lift, I pounded a button, and then reappeared besides Harry, still cackling like a loon.

"What's so funny?"

"I sent them to the Atrium," I said, gasping for breath.

He let out a long throaty chuckle.

* * *

"So we charge out, wands blazing, do you think?" asked Harry. We stood inside the lift as it ascended the nine levels to the Atrium.

"Nah, they'll have their hands full up there, I reckon. Let's just walk over to the Portkey office and ask for a ride. Nobody will notice us."

He pursed his lips, thinking for a moment before saying, "Fine."

I kind of felt bad for sending the Lethifolds up there. Those poor bastards were just doing their jobs, and technically, we were the intruders. "Think they'll be okay up there?"

"They're Aurors, they'll be fine," he said confidently.

We stood in silence for a moment before Harry turned to me with a smirk. "So a Phoenix, eh?"

"And stag," I replied, cocking an eyebrow.

"And here I was thinking you'd only bought into his interpretation of magical theory, but you're a card carrying member of the Dumbledore fan club."

I glared at him. "Piss off. Classical theory is a crutch"—it was—"and at least I don't have daddy issues."

The lift doors opened, revealing a scene of utter chaos. Three groups of half a dozen or so Aurors battled the Lethifolds, huddled in defensive formations against the far wall of the Atrium.

Patronuses, both corporeal and misty, were winking in and out of existence all around, and physical objects were banished the Lethifolds from within the group.

Paper airplane memos zipped and zoomed in circles, occasionally striking the red-robed fighters in the side of the head.

They seemed to be holding their own.

Hurriedly, I formulated a plan, tussling my hair and waving my wand at my face to add some streaky eyeliner, which immediately began to itch. I hated wearing makeup.

"Try to look scared," I told Harry, adding a little panic to my voice to get in character.

His eyes widened, and then lit with realization. "Good idea… How do I make myself look scared?"

"Hunch your shoulders or something, you look too confident. Think Neville Longbottom."

"Neville's a badass, I don't know what you're talking about," he said, but sank in on himself, glancing around and chittering in a nervous manner.

It was horribly unattractive. "That'll do," I said.

He didn't respond, but I could hear him muttering something derisive about Wormtail.

As soon as we approached the Portkey office I began to hustle forward, summoning fake tears and hysterics. We burst into the office and I ran to the desk, throwing myself down over it.

"Please, please you have to help us. We need to get out!" I pleaded.

A pudgy young man with thick glasses and a patchy five o'clock shadow was cowering behind the desk.

"Er, hello… miss. I'm sorry, but there's…" He paused, reading a crumpled looking official memo. "There's been an intrusion. The building is in lockdown."

There was a huge boom followed by a crash just outside. Harry let out an exaggerated high pitched scream as the man crouching behind the desk flinched back.

I glared at Harry over my shoulder before turning back to face the man, who was beginning to sweat bullets.

"Please, you're our only hope." I glanced at his nametag. "Roger, we need to get out of here. Nobody would blame you for Portkeying out with me and my… brother. You can save us."

Harry snorted behind me. _Twat_.

He looked up to meet my eyes, his face screwing up with determination. "Okay, I will help you, Miss…?"

"Pansy," I said.

"Pansy... Right, where do you want to go?"

Harry and I glanced at each other and responded in unison. "Circe's Plaza."


End file.
